


Lines in the Sand

by cranesoforigami



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Meta, Ministry of Magic (Harry Potter), Percy Weasley-centric, Spy Percy Weasley
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-10
Updated: 2021-03-10
Packaged: 2021-03-15 21:48:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,960
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29939874
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cranesoforigami/pseuds/cranesoforigami
Summary: The five times Percy was secretly brave and the one time everyone knew.This is how Percy knows to show up at the Battle of Hogwarts.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 48





	Lines in the Sand

The five time Percy was secretly brave and the one time everyone knew. 

i 

Percy knew as soon as they offered him the job what was really going on. He was ambitious, not stupid. He had objectively failed at his first job, essentially working for a Death Eater hiding under everyone else's nose. He read the Prophet and listened to Ministry rumors; the minister's office was about to declare an open season on Dumbledore. And his family were well known sympathizers of both Dumbledore and Harry Potter. It painted a target on his back.

He knew what his family thought of his job offer. They told him he was being used and that they only wanted him to spy on Dumbledore. The fact that it was true didn't make the fact that they didn't trust in him hurt any less. 

None of them understood. No one earned their job at the Ministry by working hard. It was all politics and money and influence and who you knew. And Percy had none of that. He only had his intelligence and whatever his ambition could provide him. Turning down this job would be political suicide; he might never get an opportunity like this again. For the first time his family reputation would mean climbing the ladder instead of falling down it. And yet that is exactly what his family wanted him to do. They never even stopped to consider his goal, or his passions or his future. 

Why shouldn’t he take the job and better his future. There was nothing illegal with his job offer. It should have been an easy choice. 

And yet, it was all there in the subtext. 

He couldn't actually spy on his family. Or Harry. Or Dumbledore. He was ambitious, but he wasn't a sympathizer. Not that his family saw the distinction between the two. 

Percy knew what he needed to do. Lines were being drawn in the sand. Dumbledore and his family on one side and the ministry on the other. Straddling the line was dangerous.

If what Dumbledore and Harry said was true; if there was a war coming. Dumbledore and his family would be right in the middle of it. Percy spying on them was out of the question. They were going to need to move outside the law and do things in the dark. Percy knew that is what happened last time and he wasn't about to be the ministry's mole. 

But he also wasn't going to give up his ambitions and his job and all his future opportunities for Dumbledore or his family either. Everything was peaceful, there was no war right now. He wasn’t going to disrupt his entire life plan just on the word of some traumatized 14 year old, even if he had eaten at their family table many times. 

And if that made him an evil person in his family's eyes then so be it. He had been working against them and their reputation his entire life anyways. 

He needed to take this job, for himself and his future. He also knew that this likely meant causing a rift with his family. 

But perhaps, if the worst was yet to come, it would help keep them safer. 

ii 

Percy had an authority issue. Although, perhaps, issue wasn’t the right word. Percy was a rule following toady who never questioned authority. And he expected everyone to do the same. He knew there was corruption in the ministry (his first boss proved that), and he knew there were people who got their positions through influence and money and not through hard work (that how had he gotten this position after all). But knowing all those things theoretically, and being expected to participate in it were different things. 

But he had given up everything for this job. 

So he kept his head down and did his work. 

He worked crazy hours. He gave interviews when he was told to. He repeated the ministry platform and worked to decimate the information. He sat in the wizengamot and watched as his bosses tried their best to get Harry Potter (remember when he showed up at the burrow half-starved but still polite and happy to see them) expelled. He ignored his father in the halls of ministry and rubbed elbows with people who whispered insults when his father walked by. Eventually, being told you are not like your father at all only felt like a compliment. He shoved down his feelings about the content of the Prophet and who the influence was behind the by-lines.

And yet. 

When someone asked him where his family had moved, he told them to check his squib cousin’s house. When someone asked him what Harry Potter was planning, he told them it was probably something dangerous and didn’t elaborate. 

And when they found out he had not contacted his family in months, he sent a letter to Ron filled with half truths to appease whoever was reading his post but made the so place it would go was the fire. 

If someone was to ask him, really ask him, if he believed all the things the ministry said about Harry he would not have known how to answer. He wasn’t really sure it mattered what he thought. He worked for the ministry and that was all he had time to think about. He was paid to work for them; not to agree with everything they said. When he was the boss he could do what he wanted but he would never get there unless he pleased his superiors. 

He very much did not think about the implications of the fact that he was, in fact, disobeying his superiors every time they asked him to spy on his family. 

Percy didn’t know what Cognitive Dissonance was but he was living it. 

This all came to a head around Christmas.

Percy worked late almost every night. He had a variety of tasks to do but the last one every day was to organize the memos and information that went to the ministers desk first thing in the morning, or, in the case of an emergency, he was to send it on to the Minister immediately. But Percy organized the memos sent to the office and set the agenda, at least during off hours of the office. 

That was how he saw the memo with his father's name on it. It flew in just as he was leaving. He was tired and ready to leave, but he still sat down to scan and sort the memo. His father's name immediately jumped out of him. 

He had been injured in the Ministry, in the Department of Mysteries. The memo was dated just a few minutes ago from the auror department. It was brief, with no details; too brief for an auror memo. Methodically, noted the auror who made the report, Tonks. 

He sat there for a moment, frozen, not really thinking. He knew what he should do. The minister would want to know about this. Immediately. His father was watched closely by the Ministry. And him being found injured in the ministry, in the middle of the night, in the in department of mysteries certainly would have qualified as an emergency that Fudge would have wanted to know about immediately. 

Percy shoved the memo into his desk drawer and after a moment piled more paper on top of it. Without thinking, he rushed into the lift. He hesitated for a moment, not sure which floor he should go to. After a moment's hesitation he headed to the auror's offices. 

The offices were empty except for a witch with bright pink hair who seemed to be expecting someone. After a moment Percy recognized her as Tonks. She had been a few years ahead of him at Hogwarts. 

They looked at each other for a moment but something must have shown in his eyes because she waved him over. 

Percy tensed for a moment when she drew her wand but she cast a few quick privacy wards before speaking. 

“You are that Weasley boy?” She asked with a disapproving tone. Percy knew almost everything he needed to know from that statement; she knew what his family thought of him and his position.

“Is he okay?” Percy asked, not looking at her. 

There was a pause before she answered. “I think he will. He’s at St. Mungos.” 

“I can’t stop the minister from finding out, but I can delay it as long as possible and try to bury it. There will still be questions.” 

Tonks gave him a long look. “We are prepared.” She said. 

Percy nodded and went to leave. But before he left, Tonks grabbed his arm. “If you want to help, let me know.” 

Percy didn’t trust himself to speak so he gave her a nod before leaving quickly. 

He went back to his office, put the memo in a pile on the minister desk under three urgent messages and went home. 

He tried very hard not to think for the rest of the night but dreamed of the burrow and hospital beds.

iii

Percy was woken up by a loud bang. He had fallen asleep at his office again. This was depressingly common. Being woken up by loud bangs was not common however. 

Something was wrong. 

Percy shook off his sleep, grabbed his wand and crept into the ministers office. There were a series of alarms going off. He didn't know what all the alarms meant but he knew enough. 

He used the fireplace to travel to the minister’s house. He landed in the sitting room and called out of the house-elf. “Cherry!” 

The elf popped into the room looking a bit alarmed. 

“Tell the minister to come immediately. There is fighting in the ministry. I am calling for Scrimgeour now. 

Precy stuck his head through the floo and called for Scrimegeour’s house elf and repeated the same thing. 

Not long after getting out of the floo, minister Fudge came into the room; fully dressed but tired looking. 

“Weasley! What is going on? It’s four in the morning.” 

“Minister! All the alarms in your office. They are all going off and someone is fighting in the ministry.”

“Dumbledore,” Fudge said angrily. “Did you alert the Aurors?” 

“Yes,” said Percy. “But, sir, if Dumbledore is there, who is he fighting?” 

Fudge was a bit thrown off by that but continued on undaunted, “Well, we will certainly find out won't we. Shall we?”

‘Um sir, we should probably wait for Scrimgeour. It might not be safe.” 

“Don’t be ridiculous. Dumbledore would not dare. Not in these halls.” 

Percy was not considered about Dumbledore possibly being there. There was a much darker possibility that Fudge was too willfully ignorant to consider. Percy wracked his brain for a reason to delay the Minister. Luckily, the fireplace turned green and Scrimigrour came through at that moment. 

Even in the early moment of the morning, the head auror had a commanding aura. “I’ll go through first.” 

Fudge nodded and Scrimigrour headed back through the floo and to the ministry atrium. Fudge followed quickly eager to see what was happening. 

Percy hesitated before following. He wasn’t certain what was waiting for him (but wasn’t he). 

He entered the atrium to see Fudge and Scrimigour standing in shock. Beyond them was Dumbledore facing off against Bellatrix Lestrange and someone who could only be You-Know-Who. 

After a moment, You-Know-Who grabbed Bellatrix and disappeared with a pop, despite the anti-apparition wards throughout the Ministry. Fudge took several aggressive steps forward to Dumbledore, but stopped, seemingly at a loss for words, besides “He’s back.”  
That's when Percy noticed Harry Potter just before at the same moment he passed out on the floor. 

And Percy knew, with a sinking feeling in his stomach if Harry was in a dangerous situation, Ronald would not be far off. 

Percy rushed forward to Dumbledore. “Where is he?” 

Dumbledore looked at him knowingly, and said “Department of Mysteries, all is safe now, Mr. Weasley.”

Percy nodded not really feeling any better about it. He turned to Scrimingour, “Department of Mysteries. There are other kids down there.” 

If Scrimingour thought twice about taking orders from him, he didn’t show it. He took off towards the lifts. 

Fudge was still standing there in shock so Percy turned back to Dumbledore. “Is Harry okay?” 

“Everything is going to be different now. For everyone.” Dumbledore gave him a serious look. “But Harry should be okay soon. Tell Fudge we are taking everyone back to Hogwarts.” He lowered his voice to almost a whisper. “Do you know what you need to do, Percy?” Professor Dumbledore had never used his first name before. 

“Yes.” Percy whispered back. He knew he had chosen which side he was on. 

iv 

Scrimingour was a weak leader. Percy knew that about a week after he took office. At one point, maybe, he had been a great Dark Wizard hunter, but he had been a politician too long and let the game and concern over image take priority. But Scrimingour trusted Percy and he wasn’t about to ruin that. 

It’s not that Percy didn't understand the Minister’s motivations. Scared people were a problem. They did things like crash the economy and reveal themselves to muggles and attack innocent bystanders. Madam Bones' death had come not even a month into Scrimingours administration and the tragedy that had shaken the ministry to the core, even if they tried not to show it. Percy had been worried that the administration would not recover from it, but it had just made Scrimingour extremely paranoid about seeming weak. 

Percy had really hoped it would be different, with an Auror as leader, but he eventually learned that Scrimingour also didn't trust Dumbledore and that wanting to use Harry Potter was not the same thing as protecting him. Or as protecting his younger brother, who always was one step behind him.

The ministry could make their security as tight as they wanted (after all a bunch of children, including his younger brother and sister, had just broken into the ministry of magic), but they were weak where it mattered. All just sitting ducks waiting for you-know-who to pick them off one by one. 

Percy was not handling this well. He felt like he was 5 again. Hiding with his older brothers, listening to his mother cry about their uncle's death just waiting for the Big Evil to come to their house and kill them. 

Except now he couldn't go into his older brother room to hide under the covers. Now he just continually checked his wards and sat in an empty London apartment hoping no one on either side would uncover his secret. 

He had been passing information to Auror Tonks and Auror Shacklebolt since the beginning of Scrimingours term. The kind of things they did not already know as Aurors, and would never make it to the Prophet as “to not impact public moral and unnecessarily scare people.” The kind of information he can get as a trusted member of the ministry. Which is not the same kind of information he could get as the third son of blood traitors and Dumbledore. He clung to the thought that his job as a spy was important, and was making a difference. It made the fear and loneliness hurt less. 

Tonks offered to tell his family what he was doing. He knew his mother was hurting and his family was angry (he saw that for himself on Christmas). But he would rather his family thought of him as a traitor who was safe, rather than a spy in the ministry. 

He also thought if he was welcomed home, he might give this all up and go hide under his older brother’s covers. 

And he wanted to have everything. He wanted the high-profile, high-stress ministry job with a clear trajectory to the top. And he wanted to have all that without supporting the Death Eaters. 

What he didn’t want to do was die in the process. Which was a little bit how he had felt in the last few months. The walls were closing in around them. It was hard not to notice it if you were paying attention. People were disappearing, or worse be coming Imperioed (he recognized the signs now, how could he not). But apparently he was the only one in the minister's office who was paying attention. Or the only one who cared to.

The final straw was an assasination attempt on the minister while he was with him. Percy was a competent dueller, but that was about it. The duel was short and he mostly was on the defensive before the Aurors got there to capture the would-be assassins. The would-be assassins were ministry employees under imperio and Percy was certain this was the start of a larger plot. He had foolishly hoped with would blow everything open, but it was swept under the rug.

Percy met with Tonks in person for once instead of just sending covert messages. They met in Percy's apartment. 

“More and more ministry employees are being placed under imperio. Scrimingour knows but refuses to put together the pieces. You and your group have to do something. We have to come up with something. ” Percy said pacing around the living room. 

“We are Perce, but it's not that easy. We can’t just fix everything in the ministry, there aren't enough of us.” Tonk was watching him pace from the couch. “You are doing good work, but you have to keep yourself safe.” 

“Don’t call me that. And if we don’t do anything, everything is going to get worse, don't you get it.” Percy was getting frantic. “Dumbledore is dead. The ministry is as good as under His control already. How can you just sit there? ” 

“Percy, things might get worse. But Dumbledore is not the only one who can defeat Him. We have to trust in Harry.” 

Percy didn’t have anything to say to that. Putting all his trust in a 16 year old and an organization led by a dead man didn’t help him feel better. But there wasn’t much of a choice. He sat down in the chair.

“Come to my wedding this weekend, Percy. And come to your brother's wedding later this summer. In times like this, family is the most important thing.” 

Percy looked away. “If things are going to get worse in the ministry, it is safer for everyone if I don't associate with my family. ” 

“That’s really sad, Perce.” 

“Don’t call me that.” 

v

Umbridge was somehow the worst part of the ministry. Which was really saying something considering the competition included actual Death Eaters. 

Percy didn’t know how many Order members there were in the ministry, but there wasn’t a lot, certainly not enough to do anything that felt meaningful. So he did what he could. 

Percy had been with Scrimingour on the day of the coup d’etat. Scrimingour had known, somehow, what was about to happen and got Percy and a few other staff out before the worst of the fighting. Percy was able to get word to the Order through Kingsley. And then he sat and waited for what happened next. And nothing really did. 

He had been questioned about Harry Potter (“Haven’t had a conversation with him in years”) and his family (“I moved out two years ago, they didn’t agree with my occupation”). And then he continued on with his job with almost no difference. 

He wasn't sure if Thicknesse actually trusted him or if he was just kept on to maintain appearances, but he was still Junior assistant to the minister in charge of the Minister's agenda and communication. He was half-convinced that Thicknesse just didn’t know who he was. Or wasn't told to care. 

But he used it to his advantage. Keeping the Order updated on new initiatives and laws that were coming down the line. He had a running report on the ministries “persons of interests.” He made sure no one looked too hard at Ron’s illness that was keeping him from Hogwarts and kept the twins’ store away from any suspicious eyes. He did what he could to slow the roll out of new harmful policies. He kept track of who was under Imperio, who was being paid off by the Death Eaters, who didn’t care either way, and who he could trust. Committing political espionage really went against everything Percy stood for, and he really didn’t think he was any good at it; but such was the times. He did what he could.

Which in the face of the Muggle Born-registry and Umbridge’s reign of terror felt absolutely useless. Umbridge kept tight control over the sentencing and procedure for that process and she took evil, sadistic glee in it. She wasn’t even under Death Eater control; it was just who she was. So he began preemptively warning people and giving them a place to hide. He started just with his apartment, but with Tonks help, he started to oversee and manage part of the network of safe houses. He had a series of elaborate charmed disguises to keep himself anonymous even from those he helped. 

Things kept getting worse. Snatchers roamed the country and were almost completely protected by both You-Know-Who and the ministry. There was radio silence coming out of Hogwarts, which was likely a bad sign. Decisions weren’t being made at the ministry as much as they were being handed to the minister from whoever was controlling him (Yaxley, Percy was pretty sure). The Wizengamot hadn’t been called in months and all semblance of anything but a dictatorship was dropped. 

Then Harry, Ron, and Hermione broke into the minisity. Because of course they did. It wasn’t widely known who exactly was responsible for the break in, but who else would be bold enough to break into the ministry (again, honestly), steal a locket and Alastor Moody’s eye from Umbridge, and set a bunch of people free. 

The ministry after that was a mess but somehow Umbridge was now off her game. 

Which is how he started smuggling people out of the ministry. Some missing paperwork, slightly modified memories and a cleverly charmed disguise allowed him to sneak people out before they faced Umbridge and her one woman show. Or got people out before they made it to Azkaban. 

He housed the people that needed it and helped the others to escape as best he could. 

It was never enough. 

vi 

Percy was only unofficially a part of the Order. He only really had contact with Tonks, Kingley and a few people who ran safe houses. He wasn’t sure how many people knew that he worked for the Order, but it was a small amount that didn’t include his family. And that was on purpose. He was the highest ranking spy in the Ministry and had regular contact with Death Eaters (or people who were close enough to Death Eaters). 

So when Tonk’s patronus burst through his door in the middle of the night and gave him instructions on how to join everyone for a battle at Hogwarts, he wasn't sure if to join or not. He had been hiding and fighting from the shadows for so long. There had been small skirmishes here and there with snatchers while helping people move from safe houses occasionally but he had stuck to the shadows and kept his identity safe. Fighting out in the open would essentially end his spy work. 

But that was the point wasn’t it. This was the end. For better or for worse. 

And he would rather go out fighting next to his family then alone as a spy.

**Author's Note:**

> This will probably be expanded in a few story that is a little more AU. I really like the idea of Percy falling into a spy role and want to play more with it. But for now this has been sitting in my drafts for literal years and I might as well publish it. This was not beta'd and I am not British so apologizes for any mistakes. 
> 
> Lexiloops on tumblr.


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